Homeschool Version

Mary had a little lamb, 

Its fleece was white as snow,

And everywhere that Mary went

That lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day

Which was not at all new

And all the teacher did was say

"Here is some math to do!"

TOS Review: We Choose Virtues

One of the many and varied reasons that we homeschool our kids is that it gives us the time and opportunity to develop their virtues, build their moral sense, and strengthen their character. We want kids with self control, self discipline and integrity who act with honesty and courage and display mercy and grace to those around them. Heather McMillan feels the same way about kids, so she developed We Choose Virtues to "simply inspire character that lasts". This is a full curriculum for families, teachers, and homeschoolers to use to teach character to kids. This is not a "one time" curriculum, it is intended to become a lifestyle for you and your kids, taking advantage of every teachable moment that crops up. Here is a little more info on how it works.
We were sent these Virtue Clues cards, the coloring book, the family character assessment, and the Kids Memory Verses, Bible Heroes, and Truths chart as well as the Teacher's Handbook.
We incorporated the cards, coloring book, memory verses and the ideas from the handbook into our daily circle time. The cards are full color, on sturdy cardstock and contain the virtue (one virtue for each card), a quick saying for the kids to memorize, a short explanation of the opposite of the virtue, and a picture of the person who goes with that character on the front of the card. On the back of the card is a practical application of the virtue and a sentence of encouragement.

For example, the Obedience card has, on the front, a picture of Oboe Joe playing his oboe and it says, "I am Obedient." The phrase for the kids to remember is, "Ok, whatever you say, I will obey, right away." The opposite is "I am NOT... argumentative, slow or unwilling, and I don't refuse to do what I am told!' On the back it says, "Choose to go the whole day doing everything exactly as you are asked to do it... with a smile! Oboe Joe knows you can do it!"
The kids enjoyed learning the sayings on the card, using repetition, the coloring pages, and the games suggested in the handbook. We also worked on memorizing the Bible verses attached to each virtue, and reading about the Bible characters as well.
I would love the opportunity to try out the full curriculum on my kids. I loved the way it is put together. I love that each virtue is explained, demonstrated, and illustrated. I especially loved that each virtue was linked to a person from the Bible and to a memory verse. I firmly believe that the only lasting change in our lives (kids and/or adults) comes from God working in our lives and not our own strength, so I was delighted to see that this curriculum leans heavily on His strength and His truth to teach our children. I did wish that the memory verse was on the card. This would have helped us to memorize it, and I think the verse was more important than the opposite of the virtue.
I must say, however, that this curriculum is only going to go as far as you, the parent/teacher/adult are willing to take it. This is not something that you can spend five minutes (or even an hour) a day on, and expect to see results. This is a tool to changing your lifestyle. If you don't implement it, it will not work.
I also want to clarify that there is MUCH more to the curriculum than I received. Check out the full thing here. Currently, they are having a clearance sale!
Read what other Crew Members had to say here.

I received this product for free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.

TOS Review: Maestro Classics

Last year on the TOS Crew, we reviewed Maestro Classics and enjoyed it very much! So when we were asked to review another, different CD from them, we were all excited!

This time, we were asked to review The Story of Swan Lake. Once again, I chose an evening, gathered them up, and passed around paper and crayons. This CD is not just the music... the first track is the music mixed with narration so the kids knew the story and understood what was going on. I like that. My favorite part of classical music was always the story behind the notes, so to speak, and I never could figure out, on my own, what was going on.  The additional tracks contain a biography of Tchaikovsky, a "metal" version, and more... you can preview them here.

This story failed to engage the boys, but the girls loved it! Especially after I pointed out that it was a ballet. Then they got up and danced.

In addition to the CD, there was a little booklet enclosed with information about Tchaikovsky, the conductor, and some instruments. There were also a couple of puzzles, and an experiment to experience the difference between major and minor keys. Kaytie, especially, enjoyed this booklet.

I love the concentration! The kids and I were not the only ones who enjoyed listening to Swan Lake! Sofie, the music-lovin' Basset Hound, snuck in and listened also!

You can  preview and/or buy Maestro Classics CDs here. They have many more than just the two that we have reviewed! You can check out their FREE curriculum guides for all the CDs here. And you can check out Maestro Classics on Facebook and Twitter. Finally, you can read other Crew Members opinions here.

This CD was sent to us free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own!

TOS Review: REAL Spanish

We were sent REAL Homeschool Spanish to review a few weeks ago. This has proven to be a difficult review for me to wrap my head around, so, instead of my usual informal style, I'm going to tell you about the program, first, then a quick pro and con of personal opinion. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll leave something out. There is just a lot to this program!
First, we received a download of a book, a daily curriculum guide, an activity book, a book with answers to the activity book, and audio files. These were all PDFs. The book is your typical foreign language textbook, with vocabulary lists, conversation suggestions, phrases, and ideas on how to present the material. The activity guide is worksheets that go along with the curriculum to give older kids more experience with the language. The audio files are the vocabulary spoken aloud. The daily curriculum guide is all of the vocabulary, ideas (and more) laid out in a weekly plan that you can follow, or just use as a jumping off place.
I dislike printing unless I absolutely have to. The kids and I can read everything off of the computer, so I don't print unless it is something they need to write on. However, this curriculum was very difficult to figure out that way. I highly recommend figuring the cost of printing it off into the price when you buy it and just plan on printing it. The book comes in color and black and white for cheaper printing. (A very thoughtful touch, I thought.)

So here is what we did: I plan our schoolwork on a day by day basis, so I went through the curriculum guide, pulled out everything I wanted to do with the kids and plugged it into our spreadsheet. This took me maybe an hour. The curriculum guide was FULL of good ideas and suggestions most of which sparked other ideas I could use. This guide was my favorite part of the whole program. Again, it is already laid out in a weekly planner format, so you could easily just pick it up and run with it.
We listen to the audio files as we are learning the new vocabulary to ensure that we are saying the words correctly.
I print off the activity sheets and have my 7 and 9 year olds fill them out. They are way over the heads of my 5 and 6 year olds.
The main push of the program is to use the vocabulary often through out the day. So we have "Spanish class", yes, but I try to remember to speak Spanish to the kids as we are just living life. The program starts with greetings, numbers, and colors (that is as far as we have gotten) which is something I am already used to weaving into conversation after years of preschoolers running through the house.

What I like about this program is:
 the tons of ideas in the Curriculum Guide
the push to use the language in "real life" and that the vocabulary chosen makes it easy for me to do that
the audio files so I know we are learning how to say it properly
that the kids ask when we are going to do Spanish today!

What I didn't like:
there was a "learning curve" to figuring out how to make this work for us, again, this curve would likely not be so steep if you are willing to print everything off
the audio files sound (occasionally) a little "tinny" and hard to understand

Some of our favorite ideas:
song ideas to learn vocabulary, the kids had a good time singing "Where is Thumbkin" in Spanish!
making a board game for reviewing the material
having a puppet show

What the kids thought:
Kaytie:
I like that we can listen to the Spanish and I like using finger puppets and I like the songs.
Nate:
I actually liked it! My favorite thing is playing with the puppets. There is nothing I did not like about it!
Daniel:
I like using my thumbs as puppets.I don't like just listening.
Abbie:
I can speak Spanish! I can listen to the words. I don't like that there is nothing to see when we are learning.


(Just to be clear, the puppets did not come with the program, just the ideas to use them did.)

In short, we all feel REAL Homeschool Spanish is teaching us how to speak the language in a simple to maintain and very fun way. For other Crew Members experiences and opinions, go to the Crew  Blog . Check out the pricing options here. Look at free samples here. And browse through free culture samples here.

We were sent a free download of this curriculum for the purpose of this review. All opinions are our own.

TOS Review: World's Greatest Stories

I was thrilled when we received a CD from World's Greatest Stories to review.  I was excited because this a dramatic storytelling of the ACTUAL Bible. It's not stories, it is George W. Sarris reading the Bible aloud with flair. My children, however, raised an eyebrow at me and wandered off to play. So I simply popped the CD into the laptop and went on with what I was doing. Before the end of the first story, all four kids (and my husband) had returned to the living room and were quietly listening to the story. They just couldn't help themselves! Then they complained when I turned it off so we could start supper. It is truly that engaging. 

One Wednesday evening I took it to church for the kids that I teach to listen to for class time. The roomful of kids ages 4 to 12 sat and listened quietly to the entire story of Elijah and prophets of Baal, only interrupting to ask questions or to respond to the story. If you have ever tried to teach kids in that age group, you will know how truly amazing that is!

We reviewed the NIV version of Volume One - The Prophets. You can listen to an audio clip here for free. Each CD costs $7.95. You can choose KJV or NIV and if you order six or more, you get free shipping!

 I loved, loved, LOVED this product! And give it the highest recommendation I can give it: I WILL be buying the rest of the CDs that are offered and am hoping that there will be more made.

Kaytie: I liked it because it was... I don't really know why, but I liked it a LOT. I like to close my eyes when I am listening to the story and I can "see" what he was talking about. I want more of them!!!

Nate: It was sorta cool. I understood the stories better after listening. I would like to hear the other stories.

Daniel: I liked them. They are interesting. 

Abbie: I loved the story of Jonah. I want to hear more stories.

We all give this our highest praise (we want to buy the rest of them), but you can read about other Crew Members' opinions and experiences here. 

This product was sent to me free for the purpose of this review. All the glowing opinions are honest and my own. 

TOS Review: Fractazmic

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know two things about us: we love games and we are not that fond of math. In the past, we have used many and various types of games to teach, illustrate, and pound into our heads different math concepts.
Fractazmic, from I See Cards, is a game intended for just such a purpose. This game consists of a pack of 60 cards and an instruction sheet. The instructions seemed easy enough, and I gathered the children up to play. The idea is that each card is a fraction and you combine the fractions to make a whole. Each whole is a "hand" and the goal of the game is to get the most "hands".

I really, honestly, think that this game would be fun as a review of fractions. But for us, this was a difficult game to play. None of the kids have any real experience in fractions, and certainly not in adding them. We managed to play a few games, but I wound up doing ALL of the work as they took turns showing me their hands and I figured out if they could make a whole or not. I even made a cheat-sheet/poster and still did all of the work.
However, if your child is ready for fractions, is learning fractions, struggling with fractions, loves fractions, or even needs a review of fractions, I would heartily recommend Fractazmic. I know that I learned a lot from playing, even if the kids did not! I am holding on to this game for the future and I know that we will eventually get a lot of use out of it!
The cards are brightly colored and sturdy and appear able to stand up to plenty of play. The pictures are cute, and are helpful for figuring out if you have a whole or not. The only negative I have is that the instruction sheet was a little hard to follow. I am only 90% sure that we were playing strictly by the intended rules. However, the rules we came up with worked out just fine, so it's all good. :)

I See Cards has other math games available as well. I have my eye on a couple of them for our schoolroom.

For other Crew Member's opinions and experiences, click here.

I was given this game for free for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are honest and my own.